Session 9b (Stars of Io)
The party saved Alm from his spellplague and then marched on Eclavdra's city/fortress. Status *DM: Bryce *Players: **Raymond - Naiveral ***XP: 2,750 + 1500 **Ryan - Wuelasselin ***XP: 2,750 + 1500 **Paul - Gnarlimb ***XP: 2,750 + 1500 **Shelley - Zem ***XP: 2,750 + puzzle box + 1500 *Date: June 13, 2012 *Location: Ryan's Media Room Summary Welcome to the Circle Club Immediately upon defeating the dragon, Wuel rushes to Gnarlimb's aid and prevents him from succumbing completely to the spellplague. Gnarlimb instructs Wuel to use the ritual scroll on the dragon instead of on him. Wuel completes the ritual to cleanse the Dragon of the spellplague with help from Gnarlimb to keep Alm subdued. The party explain the situation to Alm, and, as a form of thanks, Alm adds his scale to the Oath Disc and alters the ring so that the party can use it. The party then explains that the next part of their plans involve taking the Star that is in the possession of Eclavdra. Alm is interested him assisting as he has separate quarrel with the drow queen; she stole the crystal that had kept his lands free of the spellplague. Alm then returns to his troggy people and leaves the settlement for a couple of days to gather a trogg army for the assault on Eclavdra's Citadel. Gnarlimb convalesces, and is healed through the worst of his spellplague with the help of Wuel. Lootmania Old Mossbeard the Trog Mayor awards the party his prized Grow Bag. The puzzle canister is unlocked by Zem and holds a powerful wand and Zahz's phylacteryRK1. Old loot is disenchanted. New loot is enchanted: *Shield for Naiveral - 3,400 Arcane *"Gloves of the Healer" for Gnarlimb - 12,000 Arcane *"Bracers of Perfect Shot" for Wuel - 680 Arcane Tromping Trogs Alm, all the trogs, and the party set off for Eclavdra's Stronghold. Her scouts spot the approaching army well in advance. The party rides their dragonflies around the stronghold looking for weaknesses as Alm and his army fight through the city towards the bridge. Upon arriving at the Drow village surrounding Eclavdra's stronghold, Alm called out a challenge to her and began smashing through the drow infantry with his trogs as the party flew to the rear of the floating fortress. Bankorok Dangerous It was surrounded by a massive circle of protection, and Wuel identified these runes carved deep into stone along its edge: He determined that the best rune to target was the Bankorok rune, and after some discussion the party decided to drop a bundle of lit dynomite directly on top of it. Naiv placed the first blast, but it did little damage. As he and Wuel fought of the guards along the edge of the bubbleRK2, Garl brought the second bundle of dynomite and shoved it deep in the grooves of the rune. The party was unscathed by the explosion, but the bubble was shattered, and Alm rammed through the weakened spell. The party still had to disable the ballistas and catapults. Commentary * RK1 **As I mentioned on the FB page, Zem's reason for wanting to raid Zahz's mansion is still unresolved. When we were in the mansion I assumed our main goal was going to be in this puzzle box, but that doesn't seem to be the case. ? * RK2 **Guys, I know I'm the "tank" but if I'm taking a beating, I'd like some HELP! Y'know, just FYI. RB: *I liked all these Spellplague bits. Helped my Spellscar-obsessed character feel special. Paul, you and I really should discuss how Gnarl and Wuel bond (or quarrel) over this new shared quality. *While I did enjoy the physical puzzle-box, I'm not sure introducing it during the session was the best idea, given my (and potentially others') magpie-like fixation with such things. Or perhaps it was a really great idea; if I'm going to be distracted (sorry about that; it's my wiring) I may as well be distracted by something game-related. *Though I liked Eternal-Darkness inspired runes, I was a little disappointed that we couldn't find a more arcane solution. Did it actually matter which rune we blasted? **'DM NOTE:' Origanally I had planned for you guys to have to disable a few of these, but after I picked the eternal darkness runes, you picked up on their meanings, and I liked your solution, so i changed it on the spot to just have to get rid of the "protect" rune. It made sense. As I mentioned in passing, you could have also used the portal gun to get inside, then looked for a way to disable them from the inside. *I also liked the "rolling around a fireball to disable the catapults" idea. Just having a utilitarian use for my non-utility powers was cool. **'DM NOTE:' I always like new uses for powers. Good job being inovative. SG: *I liked the puzzle box, mostly because I kicked its butt. I felt that there should have been more cover in the switch room, seeing as there should have been piles of nets and such, as well as work tables and benches that a halfling child could have stealthed around without being seen, that way, the others could have focused more on their own fights instead of having to come to my aid, and so I wasn't gang raped by drow workers. THAT room should have been called the statutory corridor. **'DM NOTE:' I probably should have allowed you to sneak around in there, but you did have to cross the middle of the room. Mostly im just not used to having anybody in the party that can sneak anywhere at all, so I wasn't really thinking that way. Don't be afraid to try this again sometime, I'll try to be ready. PP: *Looking over the summary for this session, wow, we must have wasted a ton of time fucking around with gear. We (the players) really need to get organized. I'm pretty sure that majority of the lootfest delay was for my stuff too. **'DM NOTE:' You did waste a FUCKTON of time on gear and shit. Try to have all of this stuff ready before the session starts, so you can just say, "Wuel enchants these items" and we can move on. It would be nice if Ray could make cards for those things in advance as well. *request for inconsequential details here *I don't have much to say about the puzzlebox. It was fun to get an interactive prop, but I'm never going to want to mess with something like that during a session unless we're taking a break and I have nothing else to do. I'm not trying to take away from Ryan and Shelley's enjoyment though! *Eclavdra's castle was cool, but to be honest I never really had a very good idea of what it looked like. Something about a floating wedding cake with a funnel on top? Bombing the runes was cool too, but I think it would have been neat if we had to try a couple other runes before finding the right one, like maybe destroying one makes it shrink a little, or change shape or color. Although we would have needed more dynamite or easier to blow up runes for that to happen. **'DM NOTE:' see my comment on ryans thoughts for this. I had wanted you to blow up more of them, but his idea made a lot of sense, so I went with it. Loot